152 THE LABRADOR PENINSULA. chap. xxx. 



The first family came liere four years ago. Ferman 

 Bondrot was the leader of tlie pai'ty ; they hailed from 

 the Magdalen Islands, where finding living too expensive, 

 with no prospect of improvement, they determined to 

 brave all the threats of seigneurs, and establish them- 

 selves on the north shoie of the Gulf in the Seigneurie 

 of Mingan. There are now forty-three famihes at Esqui- 

 maux Point, or rather Pointe St. Paul, as it has been 

 named by the priest who has lately come to live with 

 the new colonists. They have already cleared and fenced 

 some acres of land, and at the time of my visit in August 

 1861, the gardens were well stocked with potatoes, 

 cabbages, and turnips. The situation of this new settle- 

 ment is beautiful, and the back country well capable of 

 sustaining a lai^ge number of cattle in the vast marshes 

 at the foot of the hills, which rise in rugged masses a 

 few miles from the shore. The houses are very neat 

 and roomy ; the one in which I passed the night con- 

 tained one large room thirty feet square, with a space 

 partitioned off for a bed-room ; the upper story was 

 divided into sleeping apartments. A stair, or rather ladder, 

 led to the dormitories which the younger members of the 

 family tenanted, the parents occupying the ground-floor. 

 The old-fashioned double stove, so common throughout 

 Eupert's Land, was placed in the middle of the room, and 

 served both for cooking and heating purposes. The floors 

 were neatly boarded with tongued and grooved flooring 

 brought from Quebec, and an air of cleanliness and 

 comfort was common to this as well as to other houses 

 I visited. Alas ! it was only an air of comfort and 

 cleanliness, for Avhen I lay down to sleep on an Acadian 



